Deer eat a tremendous variety of foods in the wild. These foods are found between the ground level and about 5.5 feet high. We use several terms to categorize food, including forage (all green stuff), fruits (hard and soft), and others. Not all plant species of foods are as desirable or palatable to deer. Some are highly preferred, others are moderately attractive, and some are only eaten when deer are near starvation.
Most wildlife biologists and deer managers agree that white-tailed deer are primarily browsers. Browse as a food category includes the leaves, twig ends, buds, and bark from small hardwood seedlings, shrubs, and woody vines. Browse comprises the bulk of a deer's diet, but deer do utilize forbs (or weeds) heavily, and they will eat a small amount of native grasses annually.
If deer are to attain good body growth, maintain good body weights, maximize antler development, and maintain high reproduction rates, they must have an abundance of good-quality browse available year round.
Food items eaten by deer in Mississippi vary based on location, season, and availability of preferred foods. We have studied food habits of white-tailed deer in Mississippi extensively through the use of tame deer and stomach content analysis of wild deer.
Following spring green-up, browse is more abundant and of higher quality for deer than at any other time during the year. This abundance continues throughout the growing season in Mississippi . In years with dry summers, the quality of native browse may decline drastically. During late summer and early fall, deer consume the greatest amounts of forage. At this time does are feeding fawns, bucks are growing antlers, and all are preparing for the breeding season and winter months ahead. Browse is at its lowest level of abundance in late winter just prior to spring green-up. During this time quality is also low, and deer can lose significant body weight before spring green-up. Browse lines show up in late winter where deer populations are too high and are visible areas of habitat devoid of most vegetation from the ground level up to 5.5 feet high. Food plantings can be important during the two critical periods of late summer and late winter.
White-tailed deer are opportunists. They are very fond of many other food items when these items are available. Hard mast, like acorns and pecans, are favorites in late fall and early winter during years when mast production occurs. Deer are also fond of many of the soft mast fruits like persimmon, plum, pears, apples, dewberry, blackberry, muscadine, and summer grape to name just a few. Most of the soft mast items are only available for a short period of time during the year.
Fungi (including mushrooms) are probably a much more important item than indicated by our studies since they are so highly nutritious and highly digestible that they pass quickly through the digestive tract and are hard to detect.
Native winter grasses are utilized during January and February more than at any other time of the year. The use of winter grasses decreases as other native plants start to green up in March and April. Planted cereal grains such as rye grass, wheat, and oats are much more palatable and desirable than native grasses.
Stuffing foods are foods deer eat when nothing else is available. These foods may include pine needles, cedar, Southern wax myrtle, and dead leaves.
The information above was taken from MSUcares.com , Mississippi State University Extension Service
